This Irish Life: Gillian Dunlop March 13

this irish life: Gillian Dunlop
Gillian Dunlop: Motorcycle instructor, homeopath and small farmer
Copyright this irish Life sheiLa oKeLLy, MarCh 2013: see https://www.faCebooK.CoM/thisirishLife
Gillian Dunlop is one of the few women motorcycle instructors in Ireland. Gillian lives in Taghmon, County Wexford, Ireland and has arrived there with her husband David Doyle and four children, from Bangor via Dublin, writes sheila oKelly
afety is at the uppermost of Gillian Dunlops mind in her career as one of the few women motorcycle instructors in the country. But the road to this junction in her life where she has successfully established herself in the Ride Safe driving school in Wexford has meant taking risks and not sitting around waiting for something to happen. It is not the first time Gillian and her family have looked around them and decided to make a move to improve their quality of life.
originally from bangor

Gillian, who is originally from Bangor, County Down (Northern Ireland http:// goo.gl/maps/pti4y), her husband, Dubliner David Doyle, and four children now live in Taghmon, Wexford, (Southern Ireland) where they moved from Harolds Cross in Dublin, 14 years ago. Back in 1998, it was David who was fed up with the city grind, office life and the daily commute. He did a couple of courses in organic farming, the family put their house on the market and eventually
found the right house with the right amount of land, 14 acres, in Taghmon. Its substantial enough, but its not too big and were not too far from Wexford town. Its about 8 or 9 miles. We feel as if were out in the country, but its down a little twisted lane onto the main road and youre straight into the town, said Gillian. Taghmon is a thriving village and theres a lot going on. You wouldnt have to leave the village. Theres pubs, supermarket, hairdresser and a school everything you really need and good community spirit, said Gillian. At first David worked from home for his Dublin employer, but gradually the farm, animals and family took over. The couple had two children in Dublin, Samuel (22) and Zoe (20) and have added to their family with Elsa (14) and Annabel (10), since moving to Wexford.
gillian is aslo a homeopath

Gillian is a fully qualified homeopath and still practices from a mobile home on their
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gillian Dunlop on the first motorbike she bought in ireland, a suzuki bandit 600n
land. After settling in to Taghmon Gillian also took on the job of teaching English as a foreign language to children in three local Wexford schools. However, this work was slashed with recent cutbacks and disappeared altogether a few years ago. In the meantime, Gillian had renewed her interest in motorcycles, an interest sparked years before when she and David had spent a year in Australia. There they rode a Yamaha 250 SR (http://goo.gl/WILvn) and Yamaha 250 XS (http://goo.gl/UbqGE). I was walking down Wexford main street and met Eddie Tierney, whos a friend of ours
now [and who is the other half of Ride Safe], and he had his bike gear on with Instructor written across the back. He was talking to somebody and I waited until he was finished and I just said are you a bike instructor, Im interested in lessons as I want to get back into biking. I took his card and then I rang him up and started to have lessons. I liked it and I said yeah I think Ill buy a bike. My dad had recently died and left me a little bit of money and I said yeah its kind of time to branch out a bit, said Gillian.
first bike: suzuki bandit 600n

The first bike Gillian bought in Ireland was
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gillian Dunlop with her husband, David Doyle, and their two younger children, elsa 14 and annabel, 10
a Suzuki Bandit 600n a substantial sized bike. As Gillian explained, yes, that is 12 times more powerful than a Honda 50! But Eddie had advised Gillian that she would quickly tire of a smaller bike on rural, potholed roads. t first David was wary and worried about safety and joked that it was Gillians mid-life crisis. But Gillian says: I think Ive avoided my mid-life crisis by doing this! David came around to the idea and in fact six months later bought his own bike. Gillian used her bike to commute to the schools where she taught English. Its more fun than a car. Its more inter-
esting and I wanted to get better. I wasnt content with just riding the bike. I did want to be safe so thats why I took lessons. I did four sets of two-hour lessons with Eddie. I was aware of the fact that I have family and I didnt want to do myself harm, but I wanted to have challenges and have fun and I wanted to feel alive. I thought again of my father who died at the age of 70 in 2008, and how many years was it between us, and I thought 25 years thats not really very long til Id be 70, said Gillian. Gillian went on to qualify as an approved car and motorcycle trainer in 2010 and has been working with Eddie in Ride Safe since then. They pool their resources so that they
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David Doyle, in a polytunnel on the family smallholding, getting ready for spring planting
can share things like their business cards and their website (https://www.facebook. com/Ridesafewexford).
advanced training
More recently, Gillian gained a diploma and a silver medal in Advanced Motorcycle Training from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, Belfast (Northern Ireland http://goo.gl/amg8N). This means she is now qualified to train people to do that course. Gillian is also on the official list of insurance assessors for learner drivers. This means that before motorcycle riders have got their full licence, they can get a reduction on their insurance following a safety assessment by Gillian. This assess-
ment will grade them as level one, two, three or four and their insurance may be reduced appropriately. Thats quite new, and it shows that there is now a commitment to rider safety, said Gillian. Eddie also teaches all over the country, with firefighters being one of his specialties. Eddie was a trucker way back and he actually teaches firemen all over the country to ride or to drive the fire trucks. So he trains them up to pass their test and its very much orientated to safety. He teaches car, bike, and truck driving, and hes also recently doing bus as well. Hes away a lot because he travels all over the country, said Gillian.
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gillian Dunlop, outside the family home, with the car she uses for driving instruction
Gillian now has a Honda CBR 1100xx (commonly known as a Blackbird (http:// goo.gl/exuAa) and David has a BMW 650 GS(http://goo.gl/LpyKX). avid and Gillians eldest, Samuel (22), has made the trip, like his parents, to Australia for a year and has a full car and motorcycle licence. Samuel learned when he was 17 because he was working as a lifeguard on Wexford beaches and needed transport. Samuel has left his Suzuki GN 125 (http://goo.gl/p0QEe) behind in Ireland. Zoe (20) is at Dun Laoghaire College of Art in Dublin (http://www.iadt.ie/en/) studying TV and Film, and is a little more tentative. She has taken a few lessons on Samuels
Suzuki and may start using it this summer. Weve encouraged them because I do think if you get the training and if you go about it in the right way its safe, said Gillian. However, Gillian and David dont take the younger two, Elsa (14) and Annabel (10) as pillion passengers. I just feel they need to be a bit bigger before Id be happy, but one of these days Im sure Elsa will try it out, said Gillian. In the midst of all the economic gloom, the Dunlop-Doyles is a family who has worked together to use their skills to change and adapt to the needs and opportunities of Ireland 2013. Drive on!
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This Irish Life: Gillian Dunlop March 13

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this irish life: Gillian Dunlop

Gillian Dunlop: Motorcycle instructor, homeopath and small farmer